How To Video: Make Microsoft Surface easier to use

How To Video: Make Microsoft Surface easier to use

2:55 /
11 March 2013

Three easy tips for improving the usability of the Microsoft Surface tablet and getting the most from the included software.

The Microsoft Surface Tablet bridges the gap between laptop and tablet but it makes a few usability sacrifices along the way.
I'm Donald Bell, and in this How To video, I'm gonna show you some easy ways to make the Surface a little easier to use.
When I'm placed with this 10.6-inch screen feels particularly crammed is in a traditional desktop view.
The texts and icons
are extremely tiny here so I suggest bumping it up by holding your finger on the screen for a few seconds.
Selecting Personalize then Display.
Here you can switch the overall size of things from the default small size up to medium or hit custom to scale things up even further.
I personally like how this thing looks like about 150 percent.
Hit Apply and let the system sign you out.
Log back
in and you should see a big improvement, no pun intended.
If you're crazy about the touchscreen keyboard, you can fit it around with a few alternative options down here in the corner.
But there's an even cooler alternative keyboard that you can pull up with this trick.
From the metro view, swipe in from the right and hit Settings, then tap Change PC Settings here on the bottom, select Ease of Access from the menu here on the left and you'll see an option for customizing about what happen when you hold down the Windows button and the volume buttons at the
same time.
From that drop down menu, select On-screen keyboard.
Now, whenever you hold down that Windows button and the volume button in that order, you'll get an overlay keyboard that can resize and has a bunch of neat tricks like predictive texts, function keys and a fade button that allows you to glance on what's behind the keyboard.
And to close the keyboard, just use the same Windows Volume key combo.
Finally, one of the best features of the surface is that includes a basic preview version of Microsoft Office, but you what's better?
The final
version.
And it's free for you to download if you know where to look.
From the metro view, swipe in from the right and tap Search, then type Updates and then select Settings from under the search box.
From the results on the left, tap the link for Install Optional Updates that says your system is up to date.
Tap the link on the left then check for updates.
Now looks like I need a firmware update but I'm gonna take the extra step here to click, See all available updates, and look what we have here.
A box to update
Microsoft Office to the final version.
I can't say they made that easy to find but free is free, so make sure to check and then hit install.
So there you go.
Three tips that will improve your surface tablet experience.
Head over to howto.cnet.com for more tips like these.
You can also find more tips from me over on twitter.
I'm Donald Bell.
See you next time.